As the often-controversial mayor of New York from 1993 to 2001 and as a candidate for senator in 2000 against Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rudy Giuliani was not unknown outside the tri-state area of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. But it was the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, that thrust Giuliani inexorably into the world's spotlight.

"I predict that you will either go to prison or become a millionaire." Those were the parting words to Richard Branson from the headmaster at England's Stowe School, when Branson left the institution at age 16.

Michael Pascucci wanted to go to Florida. Never mind that he was only 13 and supposed to be in school. He bought an old Ford from a neighbor for $45; taught himself to drive; skipped out of classes in Manhasset, N.Y.; and, along with three friends, headed south.

Walter Banks grew up in the hotel business. When he was about two years old, his father bought and began managing the historic Cavalier Hotel in Virginia Beach, Va. Then in 1960, when Walter was 17, his dad sold that property and purchased Fort Lauderdale's Lago Mar Resort and Club.

Nothing in Frederick Price's early life suggested that he would one day lead a congregation of thousands and fly around in a private jet. He grew up poor, in a nonreligious household, with an alcoholic father, and he suffered during childhood from an inferiority complex and a variety of phobias.

If a desire to see the world helped entice a young Hank Cintron to sign up for military service, it's a good bet that he wasn't disappointed. He joined the Army from an ROTC program at the University of Puerto Rico at age 21 in 1975, and by the time he retired as a lieutenant colonel two decades later, he had worked everywhere from Venezuela and Nicaragua to Germany and Kuwait.

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“"How many leaders actively seek out and encourage views alien and at odds with their own? All too few...Who in your organization serves as your Challenger In Chief? Interrogating the choices you are considering making? Making you consider the uncontemplated, the unimaginable and that which contradicts or refutes your position? And also challenging you?"”

-Noreena Hertz, author of Eyes Wide Open: How To Make Smart Decisions in a Confusing World